


out of the chaos, I can hear your name

by slashmania



Series: accumulating names like others make friends [3]
Category: Inception (2010), The Sandman (Comics)
Genre: Destiny, Limbo, M/M, Totem, old Cobb, old Mal, vortex - Freeform, why Mal likes to hurt Arthur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-01-05 05:33:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12183846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slashmania/pseuds/slashmania
Summary: He always thought that she was lovely- it didn't make what Dream had to do any easier. But he must perform his function, regardless of how it would hurt and what repercussions would follow after.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A.N: Okay so I thought I'd get this done on Friday, but that didn't happen. I initially wrote this a few weeks ago because my day had been bad and I felt that it was time to write about the very first idea I had when I considered this series: Mal was a vortex.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Inception or The Sandman. I've once again borrowed a line from "The Sinking Night" by AFI for my title. I will fix errors when I get a chance.

Dream as Arthur, was dragged to where Cobb had been found skulking around the safe hidden behind a screen. Of course he'd been right about where the safe was located, but did he take the advice his point man gave? Did he listen when he was told that Saito knew, and that their mark was playing with them?

And even though he'd been expecting her eventual appearance, it made him pause after he'd spotted her outside leaning against the railing and looking out at the night-dark waters. She was the lure that always drew Cobb's attention, the ghost that had followed after Cobb when the man dreamed and fought for a way back home. Left behind, he got to watch Cobb move back to her side, once again promising that he'd take care of it- the man insisted that this wasn't a problem, though they both knew better.

And that was when the extraction officially went sideways. He was collected by two of Saito's projections of armed guards, taken to where Cobb and Saito were so he'd be used as an example, as a means of forcing Cobb's hand. Mal was also present- she was always present and the look that Cobb sent his way wasn't apologetic. It wasn't even surprised, really. How surprised could Cobb be when his shade of Mal had done similar things during different jobs, always targeting Arthur, or alerting the mark, or making Cobb pause for too long before taking the necessary action.

Even disguised as Arthur, Dream wished that there was a plausible way to make his eyes burn with the light of dying stars, a sharp flare of red because he was honestly pissed off, even if it wasn't something Arthur did in reality or in dreams. _He'd warned him._ A resentful glare would have to do.

Dressed in something elegant, the shade of Mal pointed a gun in Arthur's face as she stood at Saito's side, facing Cobb who was already sliding his gun across the table, showing his empty hands, even as Dream wrestled against the temptation of conjuring up some dream sand; the guards on either side of him had forced his hands behind him, his fists ineffectually clenched against his lower back. It wouldn't take much thought, a minor flexing of his power as they were dreaming within a dream. It would be child's play, simple.

But as Arthur, he clenched his fist on nothing and waited for Cobb to _do_ something as Saito asked for the envelope, for the name of their employer.

"Ah, there's no use threatening him in a dream, right, Mal?"

In a different situation, Arthur would have cursed- maybe just in English or a few choice foreign languages Dream had cultivated into the character, the mortal identity of Arthur. Dream knew multiple languages as members of all nations and territories entered the Dreaming- he could speak any living, dead, or dreamed up language like the forgotten dream language of colored sparks and smoke.

A particularly ugly curse in _that_ language would probably peel paint, and if Arthur had a real, living and breathing mother, she would most likely demand his mouth washed out with soap and his ears boxed. But while pretending to be Arthur, Dream couldn't wave away a swear that manifested from between his lips as a puff of dark green smoke shot through with hints maroon, followed by dancing sparks that would flash black and red.

He turned his head and looked at the shade of Mal, still pointing her gun at him and launching into a speech that had only one purpose- this back and forth, useless conversation between Cobb and the figure that was supposed to be Mal but wasn't worth half of what the real woman had been, meant nothing but pain. As a dreamsharer, Cobb should have been able to do better than this. But all he wanted to do was punish himself. And Arthur, apparently, because he'd not been spared these attentions since Mal began appearing during their jobs.

"But pain-" she began before lowering her gun and aiming at Arthur's knee. When she shot him, his scream was real; Arthur- as Dream had created him- felt pain, loss, and dreamed like any other. Even in the dream, as a manifestation of a physical manifestation that walked the earth as a man, pain could follow. Dream himself wasn't free from experiencing pain. He wouldn't have been living up to this experiment of life as a mortal if he didn't allow himself to experience everything. The good and the bad. And he knew too well how he deserved the pain...

He sagged in the arms of the guards, forcing them to hold him up as his right leg gave out, radiating a pain that Dream wasn't familiar with through his time as Arthur. It reminded him of a dream he'd walked through once; a dreamer had been climbing Mt. Everest, Dream had followed along, curious to see if this inexperienced climber could do it. The dreamer had taken a fall and broken his leg, nearly obliterating his knee when he tried to land on packed snow instead of ice. He'd missed. In the air of the fading dream, the broken limb was a tuning fork resonating the dreamer's pain into a sound that wasn't a scream or a sob.

It was like the one he was hearing now, struggling to work through the pain, knowing that she would try and shoot the other knee if Cobb didn't hurry the fuck up!

Cobb jumped on the table and slid on his belly just far enough on the polished flat surface to reach his own gun. Before he grabbed it and shot Arthur in the head, all the dream lord acting as point man could hear was a pronounced _pnnnnnnng_ noise.

* * *

Dream of the Endless had many responsibilities that related to two things: keeping the dreamers safe, maintaining the Dreaming.

It would have been easy to lay all the blame at Cobb's feet- the PASIV device was clearly dangerous, and Dream's involvement in the Cobb's use of it had been strictly exploratory; to see how much damage it was causing the Dreaming as a whole, monitoring everything with the aid of Lucien.

But when he noticed the signs and conferred with Lucien, it became obvious that Mal Cobb was pushing the boundaries of dream technology too far; that she was becoming reckless as she worked with her husband, going deeper into dreams than any mortal had a right to.

He found them passed out on their living room floor- connected to the PASIV and dreaming away, he noticed something strange about the quality, about the depth of their dreams.

Not dropping the facade of Arthur as he stood before them, pulling off his messenger bag and dumping it on a chair, doing the same with his suit coat and leaving it neatly draped on top of the bag as he watched the Cobbs dream. Rolling up his sleeves and straightening his waistcoat, Dream didn't bother hooking up to the PASIV and entering their dream: instead, he took a step forward and fell through the physical plane, dropped away from reality, and found himself walking the streets of a city overgrown with buildings.

Dream held onto the shape he identified with Arthur, not changing a stitch of the point man's clothing, not even allowing the breeze that smelled like sea salt to ruffle Arthur's carefully styled hair, placing his hands in his pockets and beginning to move. There was an intermingling of dreaming minds here, obvious because the Cobbs were dreaming together, but this had a scent to it that was more than the ocean and asphalt- if he wasn't careful, it might rip away the fabric that bound the forgery of Arthur to Dream.

He'd encountered this in the past. There was a new dream vortex forming at the center of this mess. For now it was localized to two minds trapped in this limbo, but when Arthur forced them to wake it was guaranteed to widen and connect more dreaming minds.

It would become the center of the Dreaming and would destroy his realm unless he did something soon.

Not bothering to try and find them in the labyrinth of a city they'd created, Dream focused and sought out the familiar echoes of their minds- frowning to himself as he noticed something odd.

Still walking, he slipped his left hand free from his pocket. He then held his arm up, forearm parallel to his chest, wrist elevated.

 _"Matthew,"_ Dream said as a raven appeared, fluttering its wings in surprise to find itself balanced on Dream's wrist. Then it spoke.

"Boss, not that I don't like it when you call for me, cause really, I do- but this place is _strange_. And I was busy."

He couldn't help it, Dream bit back the smile he was getting so used to wearing as Arthur, attempting to nod sympathetically for Matthew.

_"Yes, I know. It's very busy in Eve's cave, isn't it?"_

Matthew puffed himself up before settling down again and resigning himself to it.

"When I was a man I didn't have to catch rats."

_"You've told me."_

"But I'm your raven, so I can't complain. What's up?"

_"A dream vortex is here, Matthew. I know her. I have to find her and stop this before it becomes worse."_

Matthew spread his wings, ruffled his feathers, and waited for Dream to make his point.

_"And I need to talk to you about it."_


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mal leaned against Dream's side, squeezing his hand and sighing. "I missed you so much, Arthur."
> 
> This would be a good time to mention what he had to, but he found himself unable to say it yet. "I miss you, too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N: Yes, I finally finished it. Maybe not the big 'why Mal hurts Arthur' I promised at the start, but definitely an answer to why does Dream feel responsible for what happened and thinks he deserves a fraction of what Dom's shade of Mal does.
> 
> ...and I forgot to mention the references I make to The Sandman: Overture. I would suggest reading it if only to learn about the events leading up to Dream being kept prisoner. And the artwork is gorgeous, just saying. 
> 
> There are errors. I will find them and fix them later.

Matthew didn't have to ask what Dream wanted to talk about. Dream launched into the subject with none of the hesitance, none of the worry which had marked him in the beginning as the shadow of Morpheus; an Endless who hadn't quite cemented himself in the role and nervously waited to meet his family after his own wake.

"And you have to kill her to stop the vortex from forming up above?"

 _"Yes, the length of time the Cobbs have spent down here must have accelerated the growth of the vortex."_ Dream grimaced. _"It was possible that she might have had a longer life in reality if she didn't fall into Limbo with her husband. If I don't stop her while she's down here, there's a danger for her husband, her children, everybody."_

And Dream told Matthew about the vortex he'd let go unchecked, how he'd been fearful over taking the life of the woman, watching her power grow as she slept, drawing other dreaming minds into her dream. It had gone on long enough that the time had past when killing one woman would have stopped the destruction of the Dreaming; no, it had gone on long enough to require Dream's destroying the _planet_.

_"But I couldn't put out the sun- I just ignored it. Over time, it went mad. All of my actions, my failure to remove the vortex when I first had the chance, not destroying the sun when I had the chance, led to me being imprisoned."_

"And then you had the other vortex, the one you had me watch before?"

 _"Rose Walker was a special case. If her grandmother Unity hadn't suffered the sleepy sickness that struck down so many during my imprisonment, it would have been her. But it was passed on down her bloodline to the granddaughter, to Rose."_ Dream smiled a little, despite himself. _"She was very angry at me for trying to kill her. Good thing I didn't because that would have had the Furies after me for spilling the blood of my family."_

Matthew didn't squawk, he exclaimed. "She's related to you?!"

Dream shrugged. _"Desire was plotting, and they always said that they'd get me to spill family blood. They visited the sleeping Unity and raped her. That's how the vortex was passed down."_

Dream explained the loophole that allowed Rose to live, and Unity to reclaim the vortex. _"Asked her granddaughter to reach into her chest and give the vortex back."_

"But can you do the same thing?" Matthew asked. "Can't you pull it out and get rid of it?"

_"Yes, I could sink her into a deeper level of Limbo, maybe emulating what happened to Unity. I could sink Mal so deep she might not wake up in reality, even when I drag Cobb out. But then there's a chance of the vortex being passed down to James or Phillipa. Or even one of their children. I can't do it, I won't wish the vortex on them. I have to take care of it now."  
_

Matthew said nothing in reply. It was clear his master was getting to the point.

Dream smiled sadly. _"She's not related to either Arthur or me. She treats me like I'm her dear sibling, though. That's why this is going to be so hard. But before I take care of her, I need to find her husband. I need to make sure he's okay."_

Being kept in such close contact with a vortex and spending years and years with her down in Limbo might not have given Cobb a chance of either noticing the effects or retaining his sanity. That would be a shame because though Cobb could be a pretentious ass-hat, he was still a good man at heart. And Mal loved him.

So after giving Matthew his orders to find and observe Mal, Dream went in search of Dominic Cobb.

* * *

Dream found Cobb in a recreation of Mal's childhood home. Arthritic and balding, Cobb was unintentionally hunched in front of a safe hidden inside an antique doll house. Feeble, his hand trembling with what might have been Parkinson's, the elder Dominic Cobb worked with a younger man's patience. He was so absorbed in his task that he hadn't noticed Dream's presence.

Watching from the doorway of what once was Mal's bedroom, this loving recreation of a memory, Dream waited for a natural pause in Cobb's work. It happened when Cobb made a pained noise and stopped his work on the safe to rub at his lower back.

"What are you doing, Cobb?"

The elder Cobb flinched, wincing in pain as he forced himself to straighten up as much a he could. The pops from his spine and his aching knees weren't a relief to the old man Dream had interrupted. But his eyes, still a bright and unflinching blue, were unaffected by cataracts. Though he was clearly in advanced years, Cobb retained his sight, and maybe his mind, too. Dream felt a stirring of hope when Cobb's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"What are you doing here, Arthur?"

Playing the role of Arthur, point man to the Cobbs- just a young man, not one of the Endless- Dream made a show of putting his hands in his pockets, ruining the lines of his tailored suit and shrugging in a manner he'd become familiar with as he wore the shape of Arthur.

"I could ask you the same thing," Dream said, enjoying Arthur's clipped words, and noticing the way Cobb was starting to respond to them.

Leaning against the area the dollhouse sat, Cobb his back to the safe he hadn't cracked. He was sweating lightly, but had yet to wipe his brow.

"I need to get it," Cobb said with a huff. "She's hidden her totem."

Dream tilted his head to one side, considering this. "And why would she do such a thing?"

"Don't play with me, Arthur," Cobb began to say, then, shook his head and frowned thunderously. "I can't believe she set you up here as a sentinel."

 _So he thinks I'm a projection_ , Dream thought. _This might work in my favor._

"You want to get into the safe and steal her totem?"

Cobb's eyes narrowed again. "Not- not _steal_."

"You can tell me what's wrong, Cobb," Dream began. "If you believe I've been lurking here in Limbo, waiting for you to touch something that doesn't belong to you, ask me a question."

Then Dream shrugged, adding, "It's not like we're busy here. Got all the time in the world."

Cobb shuddered. "I've been down here too long." He whispered this, looking a little lost. "At first it was fun, acting like gods, building and rebuilding the world, but I- I can't do it anymore."

Dream waited for Cobb to ask.

"What-," Cobb wavered, "what are you doing here, Arthur?"

"I'm here to wake you up," Dream said, "but first I need to know what has happened to Mal. Why are you trying to find her totem?"

When Cobb looked at Dream, there was a trembling, scared, but still hopeful look in his eyes. His point man, his Arthur had come to rescue them.

"She believes that this," Cobb waved his hands, gesturing around the room, pointing out the nearby window indicating the rows upon rows of buildings they had created in their time there. "She believes that this is the real world. She's forgotten what our reality is. And," Cobb looked away from Dream, down at his feet, at his arthritic, wrinkled hands. "We've grown so old, Arthur. She thinks this is real. I thought that if I found her totem, if I could get her to use it, she'd see that this isn't real."

Lifetimes past, Dream recalled his other self telling a fortune to thief. True, he had the power to see what haunted Cobb's dreams, to understand what was in his future. Cobb's actions were sure to write doom and damnation for him, and for his friends, too. Mal was already doomed and Cobb's efforts to save her would surely set something in motion. Dream was reminded of his son Orpheus, how he also attempted to save his wife. There was an unpleasant sensation as the two events appeared parallel; the two calling out and answering over the chasm of the years, Dream's involvement in both strengthening that strange bond. He knew that Dom Cobb wasn't his son, that up above, Cobb probably believed himself to be Arthur's father-figure, as much as Mal represented a mothering influence in Arthur's life.

Dream didn't examine the possible future, because there were many depending on the actions Cobb or Dream took. He sensed Cobb's desperation and knew that he was willing to do anything to get his wife to wake with him and leave this fake reality. The fact that they'd found their way this far down with the PASIV technology was something even Dream hadn't anticipated.

When he had just been starting as Arthur, worming his way into the field of dreamshare dominated by the military and researchers who didn't understand what they were meddling with, he'd played the role as he might have if he'd still been Daniel Hall, a mortal. When he tried to map out what Daniel Hall's life could have been like, he subtracted Hippolyta Hall, Daniel Hall's mother, the former super heroine known as The Fury. Dream viewed the mortal form, his forgery of Arthur, as a means of separating himself from the woman who had been fated to have a hand in his previous incarnation's death- she had been a pawn; a desperate mother looking for her lost child, believing beyond a doubt that Morpheus had stolen him. Recalling these things created something of an echo for Dream. He could remember telling her that he'd come back for her child. That Daniel Hall was rightfully his, considering the child had been gestated in dreams.

Maybe he, as Daniel Hall, could have become a soldier. The Prodigal would likely approve of it in so much as he could, the sometimes gentle soul that fired life and creation through destructive force. As Arthur, he'd entered the military, he'd become one of those chosen to use the PASIV device. And when he met Mal and her husband, he'd learned of her concept of the totem. The tool that would help a dreamer decipher if they were in someone else's dream. If Mal had hidden her totem away, it was likely that Cobb's breaking the safe and offering the metal top to her would prove nothing.

It was best that he continue with his plans now that he was sure that Cobb was safe.

He turned away and waved one hand, gesturing to the ether of the dream; it was wild, unrestrained in response to Mal's influence of the Dreaming, but the stuff that dreams are made of even in this Limbo responded to the dream lord's power.

"What- what are you doing, Arthur?"

Dream made it a point to pull Arthur's cell phone from his pocket, putting it to one ear as he continued to focus on his manipulation of the dreamscape.

"Just taking a phone call, Cobb. Give me a moment."

"But I didn't hear the phone ring…"

Dream ignored Cobb for a moment more while he tried to make contact with Matthew.

A frame, a door, a thing to peer through over the distance of this environment manifested at Dream's command. And though Dom was sitting nearby, puzzled over the lack of a ringtone, he couldn't see what was just called into being. Suddenly Dream could see where Matthew was perched, looking down at an old woman wandering the streets in some part of the massive city.

"Boss?" Matthew asked, aware of his master's presence, of his reaching through the dream.

 _"Matthew,"_ Dream said, abandoning the voice of Arthur. _"How is she?"_

"Much the same," the raven replied. "She walks, she wanders, and sometimes she rests."

_"I am on my way, Matthew. This needs to be taken care of."_

Matthew didn't say much in reply to his master and Dream made the portal vanish. He took Arthur's phone, pressed a button that did nothing and closed his phone.

"Sorry," he said to the elder Cobb. "I'm going to find Mal now. Stay here and don't get into any trouble."

But Cobb was watching him with narrow, suspicious eyes. He was squinting away. "I so badly want you to be real. I don't know what else to do. She's so far gone. She needs someone to wake her up."

Dream had a moment where he considered these questions. Dream, as an idea, was only as real as living things made him. Their continued dreaming and wishing fueled his being, his very function. He was older than planets and star systems. He was older than the Big Bang.

Because as long as things had existed, they'd had destinies. As long as things were born in some way, shape, or form, they existed and eventually died. And as long as things had lived, followed destinies unknown to them towards their mortal end, they lived on and through dreams. What Dream was about to do would not only protect the Dreaming for other mortal, living things but preserve his function. He loved Mal. He loved her dearly. But perhaps his seeing to it would be better than what Cobb had planned to do with her totem; because though Dream hadn't delved deep into what Cobb would have done, he had caught the whisper of _inception_.

"Keep out of trouble, Cobb."

Before the older, wizened Cobb could say anything in response, Dream vanished.

* * *

When he found her, Mal had migrated from the streets to the beach, and was standing in the sand, letting the gentle waves crash against her bare feet as she stood on the sandy shore. Dream manifested at her side, still wearing the shape of Arthur- as he stood so close to the waves, the water flowed and curled about his ankles, tugging with fingers of sea foam. He didn't care that his feet were getting wet, dreamed up shoes didn't matter.

As old as Cobb, this stooped version of Mal looked at him with a little surprise, but much pleasure.

"Oh," she said, surprised by the familiar sight of Arthur, but already reaching for his hand.

He was unable to stop her, or maybe just unwilling. He didn't want to deny her something so small, being kind cost him nothing. He gently held her hand as she clutched at him, leaning against him as they stood on the beach.

"It's been forever," she said in wonder. "It's been so long, you've hardly aged a day!"

He shrugged. "Fell headfirst into the fountain of youth."

"Sold your soul to a devil."

"Lost it playing poker."

Mal leaned against Dream's side, squeezing his hand and sighing. "I missed you so much, Arthur."

This would be a good time to mention what he had to, but he found himself unable to say it yet. "I miss you, too."

Mal looked out at the water, still holding onto him, saying, "Did you see Dom? He's missed you, too. He doesn't say anything, but he's missed you. We've gotten so old, and you, you've hardly aged a day."

She reached out and touched his face, sighing sadly. "I worry about Dom. Could you talk to him for me, darling?"

Dream blinked, momentarily thrown by what she had to say. Was she aware of his having spoken to Cobb already? Did she know that Cobb had planned? "What's the problem, Mal?"

She was so serious, letting her hand drop down to her side. "He- he doesn't believe me. He doesn't think this is real." She turned her gaze to him, eyes wide and dark. "But _you_ see. You always see, Arthur. You can feel the wind and the sea. You know this is real."

"But I've not grown any older, Mal," Dream reminded her. Then, he said it. "This is just a dream."

Her response to this reminder, this argument against her world, was sudden; though she continued to stay close to him, her face became pinched, her eyes narrowed. "You're _wrong_."

There was a sensation running through the air, the water- there was a _pulse_ of power, a shuddering that took Dream by surprise.

"Stop, Mal."

"He thinks this isn't real," Mal was saying as Dream held onto the shape of Arthur tightly, not wanting the façade to be ripped away by Mal's power as a vortex. Her anger was allowing it to build; invisible tendrils and grasping fingers of her power stretching out and out from her and changing their surroundings.

"Mal, please stop,"

But she ignored him, moving away from the shore, not stepping _into_ the water, but _onto_ the water which hardened to become crystal- a shimmering stretch of immobile water that didn't trap her once she stepped up and out of the sea. She took a step and then another, moving away from Dream who exerted his influence to prevent his feet being trapped in the crystallized sea froth collected on the shore. He followed after her.

"I was going to ask you to tell him that it's real, Arthur. He's always listened to you. My level-headed dreamer, my sweet Arthur. But you don't believe me."

Dream reached her side, grasped her arm, feeling that power begin to stretch out of Limbo, the contained environment of unstructured dreamspace beginning to fracture. Eyes wide, Dream reached out through the Dreaming, feeling the way it trembled, how it shook!

If he did nothing now, he'd fail. If he did nothing now, there would only be ruin and suffering.

Now Dream reached up with one hand, ready to strike without a weapon, still holding onto the threads of his forgery of Arthur, but knowing that as her eyes widened in fear, Mal was seeing through it; perhaps it was his eyes, shifting from Arthur's to Dream's? Were they red? Did his eyes turn red due to his anger over the situation?

 _"I'm sorry, Mal,"_ Dream said as the form of Arthur was completely stripped away, revealing the Endless for what he was.

"Arthur?" Mal said plaintively, an old woman, cowering before what had previously been her dearest friend.

Then there was a flurry of caws, the flap of wings, and then, there was his raven nervously flying between and around the pair.

Dream stopped what he was doing, allowing the elderly Mal to pull away from him and huddle on the crystallized sea when Matthew landed on Dream's shoulder and began to speak fast. Mal looked up at them with frightened eyes.

"Boss! He's done it! He wouldn't listen to me; he's gone and done it!"

Dream's eyes flashed red and he turned to Mal in a swirl of white robes, the dream sand manifesting in his palm without his conscious thought. He sprinkled it over the cowering Mal, saying, _"Sleep, but go no deeper."_

She immediately fell asleep where she was, curling up on her side and pillowing her head on one arm. But when Dream knelt to carry her away from the crystallized water, he couldn't ignore the way, even in her sleep, she flinched at his touch. The dream lord set her down on the sand, far from the water that might return to its natural state at any time.

_"Matthew, watch over her for me."_

Then he vanished and returned to Cobb.

* * *

Pulling on the shape of Arthur, Dream stepped into the room he had left Cobb in, one safe uncracked, one totem safe. But while Dream was gone, attempting to do the right thing, Cobb had managed to open the safe and now held his wife's totem in between two fingers.

"Put it back, Cobb."

But Cobb didn't listen. "I've got an idea that might work, Arthur; I told the bird."

"I'm not playing around, Cobb."

"This is going to work," Cobb was saying, ignoring the warning again. "I love my wife. I want to save her."

Dream experienced a sinking feeling, a feeling that was familiar and not, had happened to him and not. Remembering things from his past was often like discovering it all over again. It happened, and would happen again, just so.

He'd not be able to stop a reckless, youthful lover from saving a doomed wife. Though Cobb wasn't his Orpheus, he was about to make another choice that would affect not only himself but all connected to him.

Dream clenched his hand on the dream sand that manifested in his palm, ready to stop Cobb from making this choice-

But Cobb had done it; he dropped the metallic top in the safe and watched as it acted the way Mal's totem was meant to; twirling and twirling so perfectly that it was likely never to fall. Because the top would spin forever if it was in a dream.

Dream fought against his emotions as he watched the top spin. Cobb shut the door of the safe, now locked and secure, so he could turn and smile at the one he assumed was a projection of his point man.

"I did the right thing," Cobb was telling him, only justifying himself. "You might not understand it, Arthur, but this will work. We're going to wake together, up above, and leave Limbo behind." Then Cobb frowned, the sounds of cawing interrupting his speech to his projection.

Matthew flew in through the open window, landed on Dream's shoulder and reassured him. "She's fine!"

Cobb stared at the raven. "I didn't think you'd be back."

Matthew said nothing to Cobb, still trying to speak to his master.

Dream was going to ask something, then, but there was a voice calling from way off. He could hear it! It was a familiar invocation, powerful, too.

Dream didn't fight it as he was pulled from Limbo, disappearing before Cobb's eyes, the invocation surrounding him, saying: _"Brother, I stand in my gallery, I summon you to me."_

* * *

Dream found himself standing in Destiny's gallery where the portraits of his siblings were hung. He was pulled from Limbo and standing in front of his own portrait. He would have turned to look at it, but Destiny was before him.

Wearing his heavy brown robes, hood down in his gallery, Destiny held the Cosmic Log against his chest. The Cosmic Log, containing within it the destinies of all things, and all worlds, was shut.

 _"What's the meaning of this?"_ Dream said, having been returned to his true physical form, hearing his proper voice but with an extra note to it. If he listened carefully he could swear that he could hear _Arthur's_ voice, as well. Matthew was still on his shoulder, and when he heard it, the raven muttered, "And I thought this couldn't get any stranger..."

"Brother, you and your alternate form are on a dangerous path."

 _"I am completing my function,"_ Dream responded. _"Dominic Cobb has tried to incept his wife. I have to-"_

"He _has_ incepted her, as you say. Mal Cobb's story should be ending soon, your function has been fulfilled as your involvement has helped lead to these events. She'll take her life and no longer be a threat to the Dreaming."

Dream was silent at these words, but thought about the ramifications. _"The vortex will be destroyed before it ever comes to it's full power in reality. Dom must have incepted her into believing that her world wasn't real, that the only escape was death."_

Destiny nodded, his blind eyes not seeing the now slumped shoulders of his brother. Matthew dug his claws into the fabric of his master's robes, holding onto him. "Boss?"

_"I have failed again?"_

"No, brother. Not failure. Not to the extent of the first. You've learned, grown, and changed. But your destiny is now entwined with _Arthur's_."

_"But he is my creation."_

Destiny shook his head. "Yes, in a way Arthur is a creation. But your actions as you live and work as Arthur have their own effects. You have a destiny separate from Arthur's, but this is an event that will align the two for a time."

"What is he saying? What does he mean?" Matthew asked Dream urgently.

Dream touched the emerald dream stone he wore around his neck. _"That this isn't finished for Arthur or for me."_

Then Dream nodded to his brother and thanked him for his insights, for information that only Destiny of the Endless could know for certain. Because if he had read it in the Cosmic Log, it was sure to happen in one way or another.

Destiny only opened the Cosmic Log when Dream had left to return to the Dreaming, taking his raven with him. In the silence of his gallery, Destiny began to read.

* * *

Dream paced the halls of his palace, disliking the way his footsteps echoed. Like his shadow, which he sometimes thought to manifest, he removed the sound he made as he walked. He was Dream, silent words and symbols. He'd had no right to be in the waking world if it was his involvement as Arthur that allowed this to happen. This was out of his control.

He should have never bothered with the identity of Arthur.

The only thing he could think of now was that if he had been faster, if he hadn't lingered in his conversation with either her or Cobb, that he could have prevented this inception from occurring, or for his fate and Arthur's from becoming quite so close.

Matthew kept up with Dream, following after him as he walked. "It was going to happen any way, right?"

 _"Yes,"_ Dream said, despondent. _"But I feel wrong. This is wrong. Arthur isn't real, but now we have the same destiny."_

"He didn't say what that destiny was, though," the raven answered. "Just that it was 'for a time', boss."

Dream didn't say anything in response, choosing to lean against a barren, empty wall and think.

 _"Arthur would follow after Cobb,"_ Dream said, laughing a short, humorless laugh. _"And if my involvement as Arthur, in dreamshare led to all of this, I owe him now."_

"Because whether you're Arthur or you, you're a good friend," Matthew said.

Dream said nothing in response and eventually Matthew left him alone.

* * *

Dream returned to the Cobbs living room where they were still sleeping with the PASIV. The temptation to peek into their dreaming minds and see what was going on was strong, but Dream stifled it. He was there to take Arthur's suit jacket and his messenger bag, to remove the signs of Arthur having been there. He was also checking on the Cobbs, unseen by mortal eyes. He had arrived in time to watch as they woke together from their decades long sleep- woke young and full of possibility.

Dream watched as Cobb held his wife close and repeatedly kissed her cheeks, kissing the tears that fell.

But something about her expression sent a chill down Dream's spine. She looked away from Cobb and focused her blank gaze on nothing- but also maybe on Dream. He watched to see if she could truly see his form, masked as it was from view.

Mal Cobb held onto her husband and cried, not touching her totem, and stared into the blank space where Dream watched, though she couldn't see.


End file.
